Firebreaker
by Skepsis Forever
Summary: [AU] Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Alliance Cruiser Firebreaker has to keep the 'verse safe from the blind assaults of the Rim worlds inhabitants, Reavers and worse.


**Author's Notes: **I'm not a fan of the Alliance as it is in the _Firefly_ original 'verse, but something the Operative said in the movie got me thinking. Those lines about the Alliance being the good guys and Malcolm Reynolds not being the plucky hero, which in the end even he had to admit to himself were full of it. But it got me wondering, what would such a 'verse where the Alliance _was_ the good guys and the Independents were as vile as propaganda dictates be like? Where would Mal find himself? How different would be the rest of the characters? This is my answer so far.

I don't know how soon I'll continue with this, but feedback would be appreciated.

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Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Alliance cruiser _Firebreaker_ stood at the viewport of his ship, contemplating his past and admiring the 'verse, as he was prone to do when there were no immediate captain-y things to do.

He was proud of his station in the 'verse and in the Alliance, having gotten to where he was through his idealist streak and will to bring rightness and justice to any who needed it. When he was young, he had been a rebellious teen with no fear of God, but the war with the vile browncoats had made him reconsider his position in the 'verse. From the glory hound that joined the War on the Alliance's side emerged the God-fearing Captain of an Alliance cruiser, one of the pride and joys of the law-abiding known 'verse.

His mind drifted through the known and true history of the 'verse where the Alliance was created between the United States and China to save humanity, how they had tried to save other cultures and knowledge, but how they were rejected and laughed upon. How eventually, they set upon the stars by themselves and found habitable worlds, and made habitable paradises of those that didn't fit the criteria. A new beginning, just and without sin, had emerged from humanity's tumultuous nature, and for a time, there was piece, understanding and freedom. Of course, there were those that tried to take advantage of the new colonists, but the Alliance, just and fair and always involving itself for the welfare of its law-abiding citizens, had intervened and stopped more than a few injustices.

Then it got worse. Though Earth-that-was had became almost unlivable and those remaining who refused the benevolence of the Alliance's transports off-world, humanity persevered even there, and became even more perverted. Societies fell to a tribe-like state and mentality, though some preserving the knowledge of space flight and construction of more advanced technologies. While the Alliance progressed at a steady pace, it was something to be said about easy living dulling the human mind. Alas, the great rulers of the Alliance had seen this, but they did not have the heart to lower humanity's comfort for its own good, and justly so, Malcolm thought.

But the tribal space-faring populations of Earth-that-was eventually found their way to the Alliance borders, and colonized on their ways there, making Earth practically untouchable to the Alliance now. The Alliance now realized what mistake it had made by letting live those that would most surely become their bitter enemies, but alas, it was too late to do anything about it. Only to save the good parts of humanity and seal themselves from the barbarians.

At first, the incursions were minor and few, tribal Earthlings content to settle the Rim sections, effectively surrounding the Alliance. The Alliance had welcomed their fellow humans with open arms, but the Rim people held generations' worth of hatred and bitterness towards the ones they were now told abandoned their ancestors to their doom. The tensions and misunderstandings were even more fueled by the lack of a Cortex or Alliance presence on the Rim planets - after all, the Rimers wanted to be left alone, and their Alliance brothers complied, except with the often sent medical aids and food supplies, to which the Rimers were often ungrateful, or if so, bitterly so, thinking them a way in which the Alliance would wish to control them - as well as misinformation intentionally spread by power-hungry maniacs who kept the small populations in check. Small little kings of small little hills, Malcolm mused one of River's phrases, and this fit these techno-barbarians.

As time progressed, the Rimers started raiding more and more outer core worlds of the Alliance, and often each other, often not bothering with building necessities when they could easily steal them at gun point and have fun with the captives in the process. The Alliance had set upon the stars with hope in its heart, for humanity, and had "armed" their ships more for the fight with the nature of outer space than with any intelligent life out there, and especially didn't except to fight humanity itself. Thus, the first shots of what would later be called "the Independent war" were fired on an unsuspected Alliance with a population devoted to peace and unaccustomed to the harshness of their brethren they had left behind.

The war waged on for years, and this taught Malcolm the meaning of life and camaraderie. He quickly advanced through the ranks, being seen as a hero by whoever met him, Alliance or Independent.

The battle of Serenity, though welcomed that it had finished the war, was the worst of Malcolm had seen in his life. Towards the end, people were dying, on both sides, and when the ceasefire was called, he parted medicine to Alliance and Independents alike. This was a bigger blow to the image of the Independents then the browncoats could imagine, since Malcolm had given them a glimpse of the goodness, righteousness and fairness of the Alliance in regard to human life. Malcolm had tried to evacuate as many people as possible, be their clothes' color purple or brown, but the Independents blockaded the planet. Only medical ships could enter the space, most being from the Alliance, and not few of them having been shot down by the still-warring browncoats. After all, their leaders had seen the war was all but over, and that their people would be tended well by the Alliance, maybe too well, and that their former meatshield would become unwanted enemies. So the more they could kill on either side, the less they had to fear in the future.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the Independents were blockading the planet and negotiating for their own skin while they left - or facilitated - hundreds to die. Malcolm could still remember the shocked faces of those browncoats on the ground when they saw artillery from their own site shooting down or trying to medical ships of the Alliance. He remembered the triage, of the scared people who had believed their leaders' lies that the Alliance would execute them all, and keep their local leaders as playthings and information gathering, while the Alliance had only tried to help them, give them new clothes, even new homes on the Core planets. Many had gratefully, though suspiciously agreed, while few others had left their own way, with a new-found, albeit grudging respect for the Alliance.

Then the new released Independent leaders proved the lesson of Earth-that-was once again, that those who you don't let die, won't let you live. They became leaders of terrorist cells, bombing buildings of civilians almost indiscriminately, sometimes hitting former comrades. Of course, the official browncoat line - or rather lie - was that they had targeted traitors that had sold out Independent secrets that needed to be silenced, merely because they had agreed to a better life for them and for their families on the safe core worlds of the Alliance.

The worst of these attacks was Miranda. An originally prosperous planet, the browncoat leaders had poisoned the water with something called Pax, experimenting to create new weapons and supersoldiers. He still remembered that last testament of the poor Alliance woman scientist who had tried to warn the world how the Independent terrorists had poisoned their water supply, and to document as best as she could the effects before one or the other got her.

One was the virus, which would turn you into either a mindless imbecile or a mad beserker. The other was the Reavers, the suspected wanted outcome of the Independents scientists. Though scarce, these men of mad science knew of warfare as few in the 'verse and in humanity's cradle could, after all they were the ones that made the armed behemoths almost from scrap to throw into the stars and conquer the Alliance worlds. And now, this threat hung over the Alliance's heads and of any God-fearing citizen, that someone, for some reason, would release the Pax in their water supplies and condemn them to madness and/or to horrifying deaths.

Despite the Independents' actions to suppress the truth and blame the Miranda actions and those of the Reavers on the Alliance, Malcolm himself spearheaded an attack towards the surface of Miranda, with knowledge from the captured Independent leaders Read by River, losing many good men to wipe out the Reaver menace to the 'verse. On the surface, they found the empty buildings, the dead on their chairs and the last transmission of that poor woman. He was glad that at least she had time to blow her brains out before those tragic monsters claimed her body, but what they did to it remained with him to this day, as vivid as the last moments of Serenity.

He was lucky the noble Operative had been with him, and between an entire recently-formed armada of the Alliance to counter all the threats against humanity, even if it came from humanity itself, and River Tam's unique skills, they had been able to survive and send the message to one of their agents, the reclusive Mr. Universe, who was on the run from the Independents after he had thwarted some of their mischief, and who had secluded himself in the highly defended Alliance military moon known throughout the 'verse, by name if not by location. Usually, the Alliance tried to share the "wealth" as the Rimers would call what they had, but Mr. Universe, as he wanted to call himself, was worth every penny. Through him, they had intelligence on just about any message in the 'verse, and he was the only one allowed to sift through, discard or relay what information he deemed appropriate for the Alliance's and humanity's welfare. The Alliance was of course weary of putting so much power in one man's hands, and indeed of the violation of personal space of its citizens, but they figured if they didn't give Mr. Universe "asylum", he may as well use that information against the good people of the Alliance.

Unfortunately, the intentional lockout of the Rim planets by the browncoats did not let the message that was freely distributed through the Cortex in the houses and minds of the Rimmers, misinformation being thrown about the Alliance's involvement in the experiment and how they only destroyed the Reavers to clean up their own mess.

So the outer verse was boiling to a war, and Malcolm Reynolds sighed. He was one of the few diplomats of the Alliance that decided to patrol the border with the Rim worlds and stop injustices where he saw them. His mission was hard and risky, but Captain Malcolm Reynolds would not be bullied by a few tribesmen with the illusion of grander.

This is the story of Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Alliance Cruiser _Firebreaker, _hero to Alliance and Rimmers alike, famed for fighting when he has to fight, and tactically retreating when he has to run.

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**Author's Notes:** PS: I don't really like tragedies, but this seems fitting for the _Firefly_ 'verse. And by tragedy I mean the Alliance having only good intentions, the Rimers not wanting to be oppressed and being manipulated by unscrupulous people to fight against the Alliance.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the characters in _Firefly_, nor do I profit in any way from this story.

Rated T for safety.

**Answers to reviews**: Though I'd usually do this in the next chapter, I don't know when/if it'll come out, so I'll keep updating here.

_princessanastasiaromanov464_: Thanks for loving it and for the support.

_Bytemite: _This is AU, so the Alliance here _are_ the good guys, that's what my note on top of the page was all about. Everything Mal was told about the war actually happened. That's the whole point of the AU. River's story is different: she went to the Academy, on her own volition, as in the main universe, but the Academy _was actually what it claimed to be_. However, the Rimers raided the Academy and their scientists kidnapped her and experimented on her, Simon asked the Alliance's help to rescue her, and she was rescued. It's not Zoe that's Mal's second-in-command, it's... a surprise. Not River or Inara though, someone unexpected.

_vandevere: _Yes, I'll play a little with them. Mal's the only one I'll keep close to the main universe, after all if he'd be the worse of them, it'd really be a bad universe. Then again, I shouldn't overlook that idea either. I'm curious if you actually guessed who his second in command is if I continue the story. I'll PM you about it if you can keep it a secret.


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